From Satyajit to Raj Chakraborty: The Hundred Faces of Durga Puja in Bengali Cinema and Literature

Durga Puja is the main religious festival of the followers of the Sanatan faith, and through the ages Bengalis have been enthralled by the form of autumn. As these two pulls merged together, the nature of autumn and Durga Puja have returned again and again in literature and cinema — sometimes as the life of the story, sometimes as a symbol, sometimes merely for the need of a scene. In the films of many makers, from Satyajit Ray to Raj Chakraborty of this era, Puja has come in various forms, although the depiction of Puja in Bangladeshi cinema has been comparatively rare.

Looking towards Bangladeshi films, Ritwik Ghatak's ‘Titas Ekti Nadir Naam’ comes first. There, to the child who had just lost his mother, the goddess Durga appears as a mother. Puja came into Badal Khandakar's ‘Bidrohi Padma’, Gazi Jahangir's ‘Jibon Shimante’, Mohiuddin Faruk's ‘Biraj Bou’ and Babul Chowdhury's ‘Ma’ for the needs of the story.

In Gautam Ghose's ‘Padma Nadir Majhi’, the arrival of Puja is deeper still. After the houses of the fishing village were destroyed by the devastating form of a storm, Durga Puja comes into the lives of the people busy repairing them in a collective effort as an occasion of festival amid sorrow. In Tanvir Mokammel's ‘Chitra Nadir Pare’, Puja came in a symbolic scene — Basanti, raped and floating in the river, becomes a symbol of the victory of demonic power and the defeat of truth and beauty.

Satyajit Ray was the first to depict Durga Puja in Kolkata's Bengali films. In ‘Pather Panchali’, to the beat of the dhak, the group of children including Apu and Durga proceeds towards the temple, and mother Sarbajaya watches it — an eternal scene in the history of Bengali cinema. For the needs of the story he brought Puja into the film ‘Devi’ as well, and the opening staging of ‘Joy Baba Felunath’ itself is about Durga Puja; the child Ruku hears from the idol-maker the tale of the slaying of the demon, which is thrilling to all children and teenagers.

Rituparna Ghosh wove a family story in the film ‘Utsab’ amid the Puja festivities of a decaying aristocratic family — the atmosphere of Puja ran through the entire film. Prosenjit, Rituparna, Mamata Shankar and many others acted in this National Award-winning film. Durga Puja was also present in his first film ‘Hirer Angti’ and in ‘Antarmahal’.

Based on a Bibhutibhushan story, in Tarun Majumdar's popular film ‘Alo’, Puja came as a beacon of light to a poverty-stricken village. Puja also returned in his ‘Palatak’, ‘Balika Bodhu’, ‘Dadar Kirti’ and ‘Bhalobasa Bhalobasa’. In Raja Sen's ‘Debipaksha’, Puja became the language of protest, and in Shibu-Nandita's ‘Belasheshe’, Puja came as a bond of family harmony.

The sindoor play of Bijoya Dashami is an age-old tradition of Bengali women — a white than saree with a red border. The scene of Rakhee Gulzar applying sindoor to the goddess Durga in Aparna Sen's ‘Parama’ remains iconic in the viewers' minds. In this single scene, Puja, womanhood and the pain of farewell are captured together.

Although the autumn Puja is known as ‘Akalbodhon’, Puja has come to the screen at other times besides autumn. In Srijit Mukherji's alternative-genre film ‘Uma’, a father arranges a fake Durga Puja in Kolkata to fulfil the wish of his sick daughter living abroad — the film was praised at various festivals. In ‘Jaatishwar’, the kabiyal Anthony Firingi performed Puja, and Arindam Sil's ‘Durga Sohay’ is also particularly noteworthy in this line.

Nowadays Puja just doesn't take off without songs. ‘Dhaker Tale Komor Dole, Khushite Nache Mon’ — this song from the Ravi Kinagi-directed, Dev-starring film ‘Poran Jaye Joliya Re’ gained wide popularity on the occasion of Puja. The much-talked-about ‘Durgeshgorer Guptodhon’ brought the Puja of an aristocratic house and a treasure hunt, and in Kaushik Ganguly's ‘Bishorjon’, along with the story of Puja, there is the atmosphere of immersion — Jaya Ahsan was praised for acting in the role of Padma.

Outside the screen, the scriptural foundation is also deep. Long before the Ramayana, descriptions of the goddess Durga's worship rituals and Puja methods exist in many texts, including the Markandeya Purana, Devi Purana, Kalika Purana and Brihannandikeshwar Purana. The process of combining the power of accomplishment for the destruction of demonic forces, in the teachings of knowledge-power, wealth-power and battle strategy, is also recorded there in the form of prescriptions, and it is from that belief that devotees worship Durga as the ideal of love, forgiveness, simplicity, purity and sacrifice.

In literature too, Durga has come in many forms — sometimes in the mother form, sometimes in the power form, sometimes merely as a formality. Rabindranath adored Durga as ‘Anandamayi’ with liberation and devotion; beautiful descriptions of the Durga festival have blossomed in his poetry, short stories, novels, plays and even letters. In the novel ‘Ghore Baire’, he arranged the characters Bimala, Sandip and Nikhilesh in Durga's universal integrated diversity of forms.

Kazi Nazrul Islam saw Durga in the ‘Raktambaradharini form’. Alongside songs, poems, novels and shadow-plays, he left his own signature in this line by composing Shakta Padabali. Michael Madhusudan Dutt imagined Durga in ‘Meghnadbadh Kavya’ in the ‘Shashankadharini form’ and ended the epic with an extraordinary description of the tragedy of the goddess's immersion — ‘Having immersed the idol, as on the day of Dashami, Lanka wept in sorrow for seven days and nights.’

Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay too could not hide himself from the sphere of influence of the luminous Durga; in tender, harsh and affectionate characterisations named Parbati and Durga, he transformed literary creation into worship. Sarat Chandra showed the grace of Durga's mother-facing culture, and in Bibhutibhushan's world of Apu-Durga, Satu, Malati, Harihar and Indir Thakrun, the worship of autumn's white, cool and tender Brahma-power appeared as a means of liberation from poverty. Puja is therefore not merely a festival to Bengalis — it is one of the oldest and most vibrant languages of their storytelling.